Birthday Parties

After the Sports Meeting, we had a few days off for the May Day holiday. May day is like Labor Day in America. Our holiday was filled with birthday parties.

This is Hatty Lee. She used to be Camille's student and then last year she moved to No. 3 High School and became Erin's student. This year, she is Brad's student, so she knows all the foreigners! She invited us to celebrate her birthday at the park. We had lots of snacks, played frisbee, and opened gifts. 

Me, Leila, Becca, and Camille.

Our friends Becca and Adam and their kids even came into town for the party.

Our friend Celia's baby, Mao Mao, turned one! We were invited to celebrate with them! They did a mixture of Chinese traditions with Western traditions.

One Chinese tradition is to place several items around the table such as a ball, money, book, and instrument. They put the baby down on the table and wait to see what item they choose to pick up. Whatever they pick up is supposed to symbolize what they will do/be in the future. For example, if they pick up money, then they will be rich in the future or if they choose a paintbrush, then they will be an artist. 

Everyone was very excited to watch and her close family members were trying to persuade her to pick up certain items!

First, she picked up the ball, which means she will be athletic. They encouraged her to pick up some more items, so she chose money and a stamp. The money means she will be rich and the stamp means she will "attain a high position".

The birthday party was held at a hotel, where we were provided lunch. This is Dawn eating a soft turtle shell. Camille and I were kind enough to let her have it!

Birthday cake! Celia is an English teacher and has been working with foreigners for years. Birthday cake started in the west, but is a common tradition in China now, too!

Dawn with the birthday girl!

Us with the babies! Happy one year birthday Mao Mao!!

Let the Games Begin!

  Huangshi No. 1 High School's Sports Meeting.

 Last weekend, our school held a "sports meeting", as they call it, for all of the Grade 1 and Grade 2 students. It was mostly track and field events, with a few more creative and fun games thrown in as well. Poor Grade 3 students are seniors in high school and they never get to do anything fun. They have to prepare for the college entrance exam in June. Unlike America, their exam is held over a 3- day period that is set by the government. They have to take it on this date and can only take it once. The students are under a lot of pressure, so they didn't have time for the sports meeting.

 

Day 1

The first day of the event started by having every class from the school present themselves around the track in their class "uniforms". The students don't wear uniforms to school, they only created fun t-shirts for the games. Some classes got a little more creative than others.

 

This is of one of my classes from Grade 1. They released balloons when they passed the headmasters and judges for the competition.

 

Another of my Grade 1 classes held up small Chinese flags. Some students took this very seriously!

 

I tried to get a picture of all the students out on the field, but there are so many, I couldn't get them all in one photo. This is half!

 

This is the other half. Our school is really beautiful now that we have warm weather again!
Each class had to present themselves around the track and then line up on the field. After all of the classes were lined up, they raised the flag and then proceeded to do the usual morning exercise routine. At least 2 or 3 times a week, our students parade out to the field for morning exercise, where they all do the exact same movements together. It is pretty hilarious to watch, especially since most of the students are bored!

Camille, Diana, and I in our matching judges' jackets, ready for the competition to begin. She makes us look like giants!

I just loved this man's shirt. He looked so intense while waiting. Go China!

 

 

A few of our students were the "official photographers" for the games, so we were constantly posing for pictures. My student, Philip, sent me this gem. We were waiting to fight out what event we would be judging. By the way, the hat was also part of the judge's outfit! I'm not gonna lie, I felt super cool rocking my hat and jacket, acting like I knew anything about what was happening!

 

We found out! We were in charge of shot-put! So, of course, we decided to play around before the kids got there and see how far we could throw it.

 

My turn to play! It didn't go very far :(

 

                 
                                  Diana's turn to play. I'm pretty sure she beat both of us!

And finally, the real competition. The boys' shot-put.

 

And then the girls' shot-put. We "judged" the shot-put competition for two days. First we had to judge the Grade 1 boys and then later the Grade 2 boys on day one. Day two was the same, but for girls. When they realized that Camille and I couldn't call out names or measurements in Chinese, they decided that our job should be to run out and retrieve the shot-put and bring it back each time it was thrown. Lets just say, after two days and picking it up over 100 times, my arms were pretty sore!

                                                                            Day 2
As soon as our shot-put job was finished, Camille and I went back to the teacher's tent on the field. Immediately, we were approached by a teacher and the conversation went something like this...
Teacher: Hi, we would really like for you two to take part in the teacher race.
Us: Umm, ok, when is it?
Teacher: It is now.
Us: Oh! Well how far is it?
Teacher: 800 meters.
Us: I don't know what that means! (we don't know meters) How many times around is it?
Teacher: 2 times
Us: Two?!?!?! I don't think I can run that far!
Teacher: Please?
Us: Ok.

This was another one of those moments when you look back and say, "What was I thinking?" This is when Camille and I signed our names for the race. We really weren't sure if we could run that far, neither one of us likes to run and this was a race, not just a leisurely jog! But, all of the teachers and students were just so excited that we couldn't turn them down.

 

 As you can see, Camille and I were not taking this very seriously. We were talking and laughing the whole time. Our students were running around the track with us, cheering us on!

Right before we were about to start, I looked over to see a woman wearing a dress with tennis shoes. I told Camille that we had to better than her, since she was wearing a dress! Right? You can't even see her in this picture, because she took off so fast. I definitely had to eat my words!

We finally finished! And I do mean FINALLY, as we came in last place! I'm embarrassed to admit it, because if you look at the picture above, you will see that quite a few of the people running were a bit older than us! I like to tell myself that they knew about the race ahead of time and that they are probably regular runners. Nevertheless, we finished and we never stopped to walk! And it was realllyyyy hot! Ok, I'm just trying to make myself feel better!

All of our students who were there, ran up to us to tell us, "teacher, you are the best!". I said, "thank you, but actually I came in last, so I am the worst!". They were very adamant that as long as you finish the race, you are the best!

Another student of mine, who is brutally honest with me, was not there when we raced but heard about it later. That afternoon she found me and said, "Oh, Lesley, I heard you ran this morning...very slowly."

                                                                   Day 3

My Grade 2 Babies! These students from the only class in Grade 2 that I teach this year, so they are the only students that I have known and taught for two years. I feel very attached to them and will hate to say good bye to them! This was before the boys and girls, class relay race.

This was by far my favorite part of the competition to watch!  About ten students from each class lined up together on the field and tied their feet together. They had to walk/run to the other end of the field, while tied together. Think a three-legged race times 10!

After they were tied together and ready to start. There were several falls and pile-ups. Too funny!

And then there was the jump-rope competition. How many jumps could a class get in a certain amount of time?

The closing ceremony and awards. I would love to tell you more about this, but I didn't understand a word of it! My life in China....

 

He is Risen!

This Easter was a fantastic fun-filled, spirit-filled week spent with students and friends! I was able to do a lesson with all of my students about Easter. It included a short youtube video, with Chinese subtitles, about the true story and reason for Easter. Most of my students told me that this was the FIRST time to hear this story!  

One of my classes watching the video! Teenagers are amazing...if you want to get their attention, play a movie! 

We also played an Easter game with some key vocabulary words. These are two of my wonderful students, Leo and KFC holding up the dice from the game! Leo is really sweet and helpful in class. KFC is funny and likes to play jokes on me.

Two more students, Scott and Bruce, who realllly wanted to take a picture on my camera!

The reason I was taking pictures is because this week was also the last time I would teach each of these classes. In March during their first year of high school, all of the students take an exam that will determine what class they will be in for the rest of high school. The classes are ranked highest to lowest, so there is a lot of pressure to do well on the exam. I took pictures of all of my classes. I always took pictures of them seated at their desks. Except for my best class, Class 16. I thought it would be a good idea to take a group photo. 

This was the result....kids were falling over, books were flying, everyone was shouting!

At this point, all I could think was, "What on earth did I do?".

Ahh finally, a successful group photo! I love these kids!

EASTER PARTY!

Camille and I thought it would be fun to host an Easter party at our home on Easter Sunday. We invited  all of our friends as well as some of our colleagues and students. We had about 40 people show up. Lets just say our apartment was a little cramped!

Dawn came over on Saturday to help us prepare and make food. Even with her help, Camille and I spent 12 hours making party food! Making Western food requires a little more effort here than in America!

Oh yeah! Look at all that delicious, homemade party food! 

Easter cupcakes. These were a first for many of our guests. 

Kids Corner. The elementary education major in both of us came out. It was a hit and definitely kept the kids entertained during the party. 

The egg dying station, including step by step directions for how to dye and decorate your Easter egg. Most Chinese people have never done this before, but have heard about it or seen it on TV, so it was really fun to watch everyone get so excited about it. The adults had just as much as the kids! 

Camille and I with a few of the teachers from our school, Betty, Shirley, and Diana. 

One of my students, Catherine. 

Geoffrey and Amanda using chopsticks to enjoy the western food.

Diana and her daughter, Flora. 

Two wonderful students of mine, Catherine and Alice. 

One of our former students, Hatty Lee, made sure to stop by before she had to go back to school. Students in China have school on Sundays. 

A student, Beyond and our friends, Rossin and Mr. Fish. We call him Mr. Fish because his real name is Yu. Yu in Chinese also means fish, therefore his name is Mr. Fish!

Grade 1 English teachers (and their kids) from No. 1 High School. Shelia, Shirley, Diana, me, Ting Ting, Camille, Betty, and Henry.

Flora loved that English Corner. She stayed long after the party was over and colored until she ran out of pages!

Look at this chaos! So many people in such a small space!

Our friends and students at the egg dying table. 

Shirley's son and his friend decorating eggs! Shirley's son is quite the character!

Some of the finished product.

Helen showing Flora and little Mr. Fish how to dye their eggs. Little Mr. Fish is obviously Helen and Mr. Fish's son. 

Time to show off your eggs! Everyone could take their eggs home with them!

Amanda and Hatty Lee. 

Flora!

These are our good friends Wang Hao and Wu Xia...

Wu Xia made this egg for Wang Hao because he was too cool to make one. It said "This is Wang Hao's. Air Jordans, Flight 23." 

If you can't tell, he loves basketball and he really loves sneakers! 

Baby friends! This is our friend, Celia, and her daughter Miao Miao, with baby Leila, Dawn, and Dana. 

How cute! Matching tutu friends! Flora and Leila became instant friends at the party! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and remembered to rejoice over the good news! He is Risen! Because of His blood, suffering, and sacrifice, we are saved!